If you're anything like me, you may find it hard to source a great holiday house in a beautiful place for a good price. You find yourself on website covered in leopard print, tiny photos of maroon bedding and orange walls. The dream of your relaxing, beautiful getaway starts to fade.
I've managed to find some really great places online that don't feature log headboards!Now, being the end of the year and all, I haven't been able to book any of them, except one, however, I thought I'd put them up here for us to keep them in mind for next year. Especially Sutherland for next winter. (I still haven't seen snow before)
Some are close and some are far. We're going from Cape Town to Barrydale and then on to Calitzdorp, so most of these places are a bit further out of town than the usual.This piece is focused on Calitzdorp.Calitzdorp // River View Cottages // N1 383km, 5 hours from Cape Town // R240 pppn
First up, is River View, these cottages are gorgeous.Simply styled in a modern aesthetic, these cottages and old schoolhouse are surrounded by breathtaking mountains, the Gamkarivier and general awesome nature stuff.
More info about rates, how many people per house etc. here.

the cottages

the cottages

the old school house

Calitzdorp // Matjiesvlei Guest Farm // N1 387km, 5 hours from Cape Town // ±R200 pppn
Matjiesvlei has a number of self catering houses, 3 of the houses can sleep 6, Cloete Huis sleeps 4 and Die Wa Huis (no electricity, romies) sleeps 2 and then you can camp at Die Dam Rivier.More info about rates, how many people per house etc. here.

Sleeps 4, I think this is my favourite of all of them.

Sleeps 2

Sleeps 6

Sleeps 6

Sleeps 6

Calitzdorp // Matjiesvlei Cottages // N1 387km, 5 hours from Cape Town // R100 - R260 pppn
So, this is where we're gonna be spending our New Years. I only booked yesterday, so we got the barn, hell yeah! It sleeps 8...we'll be 2 people. Maybe 4 if our friends decide to come up, ha!Anyway, it's incredibly affordable at R100 pppn so we've booked it for 5 days.More info about rates, how many people per house etc. here.

I have new neighbours!Now that Opus has moved downstairs at the Foundry, the studio next door has been transformed from a jungle of plants to a jungle of the animal kingdom. These beauties have been taxidermied with care by Blue Duiker.I love this little museum of gorgeous skulls, horns and birds. It's amazing to be able to go right up close to these creatures and appreciate them. Visit them at The Woodstock Foundry, 160 Albert Road.

In their own words:

"We offer Natural History products from Africa, on-line.

All the items on this site are authentic original pieces that come from South Africa.

We specialize in skulls, taxidermy, tanned game skins, horns, bone and various other items such as porcupine quills and feathers.

We sell our items world wide to retailers, collectors, educational institutions, taxidermists, artists, decorators, craft and knife makers as well as furniture designers.

All our items are sourced legally and are sold with the required export paperwork; C.I.T.E.S (when required), which is included in the price of the item.

We are registered with our local Nature Conservation authorities and work in close conjunction with them.

Should you have a particular request, question or would like us to source items you do not find on this site, please feel free to contact us."

So, I designed this wine label for Owl and Vine, their second wine after Alphabetical.Pretty cool, huh?We had a rad Sunday dranking and bottling and eating pizza and stuff. It was beautiful. Dirty Julie is really...really drinkable. Check out some cool pics by Andrew Brauteseth here.

I've been working with Urban° for the past few months and everything has finally all come together!Tuesday was the launch of the 6 different t-shirt designs I designed under the concept of the modern urbanite. There are 3 ladies tank tops and 3 mens t-shirts. They are limited to only 300 of each t-shirt...that'r pretty darn cool. :)

Woohoo!THE xmas market of the year will be happening on Monday, the 17th of December.From 10am till 4pm, I'll be having an open studio for everyone to come and see where I work as well purchase my goods!I have brand new xmas cards which are the cute ever as well as art prints, feather earrings, necklaces etc.

The Hello Pretty team have curated a beautiful array of over 40 young entrepreneurs to sell their wares in the tented outdoor area of the building and it's just gonna be radcore.Keep up to date with what's happening on the FB event page. If you RSVP to the market, it gets you an entry to win a Secret Santa box worth R1 100! Nice!There's also gonna be a photobooth and candy floss, hells bells!!See you Monday!

"The 'Can We Suggest An Outfit' Collection is a capsule range created by designer Jessica Harwood for Take Care. Most items will be sold exclusively in the Take Care store in Cape Town at 73 Kloof Street. Made to order items are limited to twenty per style. All garments are made in Cape Town and fabric is sourced locally. We believe in good design and never compromise on quality."

I'm loving the new pieces by Take Care, all the essentials with a design twist.Monochrome, easy wearing and feminine, Take Care is my go to choice of clothing for any occasion.I LOVE this white shirt. Those who know me personally will know that I kind of only wear a white shirt with black jeans or leggings.

These two black dresses are gorgeous, although I may have to do a bit of yoga before I get into something that tight....